China's rise erodes Western bargaining power: observers

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Britain blasted as 'powerless' over China execution row
London (AFP) Dec 30, 2009 - Relatives of a British man executed in China accused Britain Wednesday of being diplomatically powerless due to its economic dependence on the Asian giant, after Beijing ignored London's clemency appeals. Two cousins of Akmal Shaikh also accused the West of double standards for citing human rights abuses to justify its invasions of countries such as Afghanistan but failing to take the same approach towards Beijing. Shaikh, a 53-year-old father-of-three whom supporters say was mentally ill, was executed on Tuesday for drug smuggling despite extensive British ministerial lobbying that continued almost up until his death. But in a letter to the Guardian newspaper, his cousins Amina and Ridwan Shaikh lamented the lack of real British influence in the case.

"This is an example of Britain's powerlessness in the world. Their strategy of being shoulder to shoulder with the US in the 'war on terror' has not given them the status they so desperately desire," they said. The cousins noted that "one of the justifications we are told for invading countries like Afghanistan is 'human rights violations'." "If it is accepted by all that there are gross violations taking place in China, why aren't they, too, invaded? This is purely to do with the fact that China is a powerful country economically. "Britain's economic dependence far outweighs these 'individual cases'."

Shaikh was arrested in September 2007 in Urumqi in far western China with four kilograms (nine pounds) of heroin, but campaigners say a criminal gang duped him into carrying the drugs. He was the first national from a European Union country to be executed in China in 50 years, according to London-based charity Reprieve, which had been providing him with legal counsel. China's ambassador Fu Ying was hauled into the Foreign Office hours after the execution on Tuesday to be told of Britain's anger, in what was described as a "difficult" meeting. But in Beijing officials insisted that Shaikh's legal rights had been fully protected, while a foreign ministry spokeswoman expressed "strong dissatisfaction and opposition to Britain's accusations." Britain has vast trade and economic ties with China, and has long underlined the need to engage closely with the emerging global powerhouse despite criticism notably of China's human rights record.

But ties have long been complicated, and tensions were highlighted at this month's Copenhagen climate summit where environment minister Ed Miliband said China had led a group of countries that "hijacked" the negotiations. In a commentary on the Shaikh case the Times said that Britain's "diplomatic failure" was forcing a rethink of strategy towards China. "After the Copenhagen debacle this month and the execution of the first citizen of a European country by China since 1951, Britain is now reassessing how to handle China diplomatically," it said. Two other cousins, Soohail and Nasir Shaikh, also lashed out as they returned to Britain after meeting Shaikh hours before his death. "To date while Akmal was still breathing, and then while my brother and I were still in China, we had restrained ourselves in any comments in the hope that Akmal may be spared," they said in a statement. "Now, however, we would like to let the Chinese authorities know our anger and disgust with their arrogance and the high-handed way in which they have dealt with Akmal's case." They called the Chinese decision to let them see him a "ploy," noting that the condemned man's clothes were laid out by the guards even as they were talking to him. "The decisions had obviously already all been taken and our personal appeals were always going to fall on deaf ears," they said.

by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) Dec 31, 2009
Surging economic and diplomatic clout has given China the confidence to ignore old world powers like Britain, which failed to halt its first execution of a European since the 1950s, experts say.

The death penalty meted out to Briton Akmal Shaikh for drug trafficking was only the latest example that China feels free to act without regard for global opinion on a wide range of issues including human rights, they say.

In recent weeks, Beijing has jailed a prominent dissident for 11 years for subversion despite a Western outcry, taken a firm line that led to a tepid global climate change pact and refused to budge on the value of the yuan.

"We've entered a new phase, a phase in which there is less leverage for foreign governments to exert on China in the area of human rights," Joshua Rosenzweig, a Hong Kong-based manager of rights group Dui Hua, told AFP.

"In the past, China would make concessions on human rights when it needed something from the West... now more often than not, it is the foreign governments that need something from China."

In the past, China conceded on rights issues as a trade-off to secure its membership of the World Trade Organisation, the right to host the 2008 Olympic Games and gain greater international recognition on the whole, Rosenzweig said.

Today, Western governments are calling on Beijing to help prop up the flailing world economy and resolve thorny diplomatic disputes such as the standoffs over the controversial nuclear programmes of Iran and North Korea.

Already the third biggest economy on the planet, China is set to overtake Germany as the world's top exporter and also holds the largest foreign exchange reserves, at a whopping 2.27 trillion dollars, including 800 billion in US Treasury bonds.

"Chinese leaders are most reluctant to make concessions when they are seemingly being criticised or under open pressure," said Joseph Cheng, a professor of political science at the City University of Hong Kong.

"This sensitivity has become strengthened probably due to the Chinese leadership's perception of its rising status in the world as well as domestic nationalism. These have prompted the Chinese authorities to stand firm and respond in a high-handed, hardline manner."

Repeated Western appeals for the release of the dissident Liu Xiaobo instead led to a tough jail sentence -- and a stern rebuke from Beijing, which denounced the "gross interference" of foreign governments in its affairs.

In the Shaikh case, Britain issued repeated top-level calls for clemency and asked that the condemned father-of-three, who reportedly had bipolar disorder, be reviewed.

But China executed the 53-year-old and defended capital punishment as a way to deter would-be drugs criminals.

It also warned Britain not to "create new obstacles" to their relationship, already frayed over the troubled Copenhagen climate talks, which a British minister said had been "hijacked" by Beijing.

Cheng said foreign governments should continue to voice their criticisms and demands to China but should be careful when making public pronouncements, especially at sensitive times.

"Immediate and open criticisms of China could backfire immediately," he said.

"But if such pressures are maintained consistently and are brought up in various dialogues with China in a low-key manner, persistence will yield results."

Rights activists also urged the global community to remain vocal in calling for improvements in China's human rights record, criticising Western governments for recently going too soft on Beijing.

"This demonstrates that the international community has really not been raising these issues at a sufficient level to impress on the Chinese government that this is an important concern," Roseann Rife, Asia Pacific deputy director for Amnesty International said after Shaikh's execution and Liu's jailing.

"Since the Beijing Olympics, they (China) have gotten away with increased repression of human rights defenders, they have gotten away with cracking down on freedom of expression.

"This is what happens if you don't raise your voice."

In an editorial this week in the New York Times, exiled dissident Wei Jingsheng, who spent more than 15 years in prison in China, urged US President Barack Obama to stop soft-pedalling Beijing.

"The case of Liu Xiaobo presents an opportunity for President Obama to save face and stand up to the hardliners' untoward arrogance," Wei said.

"If the United States doesn't push back, the hardliners will push on, with negative consequences across the whole spectrum of issues, from trade and currency valuations to global security and climate change."

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